Cody Charles Founds LGBTQ Youth Group in Kansas

Cody Charles, LGBTQ activist and community member, enacts their lifelong dream by opening a group center for the youth of the LGBTQ community, according to LGBTQ Nation.

This has come after a lifetime of speaking out for queer and people of color and their needs. The needs of the LGBTQ youth should be met, and Charles is here to help. They designed this to give LGBTQ youth a chance to have a fulfilling childhood.

“We’re giving the youth tools that communities never give to queer and trans youth,” says Charles.

Charles assessed the rooms and tried to determine their purposes in an open house. Sixty youth gave their input and showed up. They suggested more amenities, such as an art room and multimedia room.

The group, known as Haus of McCoy, offers much-needed things such as hygiene kits, a closet swap, and even a food pantry.

Haus of McCoy is meant for all, however, “The core of the organization is a politic that holds Black, trans, disabled, poor, undocumented women at the center.”

“I thought it was very important to get the queer and trans youth in that space [so they would] know it’s their space, and they decide what happens here,” says Charles in an interview with LGBTQ Nation. “They may not have autonomy anywhere else on planet earth, but in this space, they get to decide.”

The Haus of McCoy is designed to give these marginalized communities a fair chance at life and provide sanctuary for the sidelined peoples who receive so little attention and so much neglect in America.

Lawrence, Kansas, the location of this group, is a wealthy and white area. Identity and autonomy are hardest to fight for in a place like this. Charles is used to this fight, constantly producing articles to provoke the locals to think hard about this. “Dear white Lawrence youth,” their earliest work, encourages the youth to unlearn delusions created by white supremacy and criticizes parents for perpetrating these oppressive fantasies.

“White people and whiteness will steal everything!” says Cody. “They’ll make money off of it and lessen its meaning in the same moment. White supremacy is pervasive.”

Photo courtesy of social media